Adani Drops March Deadline to Secure Finances for Australia Mine Project

The woes being faced by the Adani group seem far from over. While India’s customs department revived allegations of a $600 million financial fraud against the firm earlier this month, the conglomerate now faces a fresh setback in its bid to build one of the world’s largest coal mines in Australia. Adani has dropped the March 31 deadline for getting financing for the first stage of the Carmichael mine, Fairfax media reported.

The March deadline was predicated on the company getting a subsidized loan from the Australian government via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif), Adani Australia spokeswoman told the Guardian. The timeline for financing was pushed back after the Labor government at Queensland made it clear that it would veto any such loan.

“We remain 100% committed to the Carmichael project. We are confident of securing financing,” she was quoted as saying by the publication. The company will also consider selling a minority stake, Bloomberg reported.

The Queensland government’s Acting Premier Jackie Trad has accused the multinational of stalling the project. “It’s disappointing to see that Adani is once again stalling on financial close as they have done for many other milestones in the past. I know that there are many regional communities who want them to get on and build this project,” she said in a statement.

The company reiterated that the deadline was made keeping the NAIF loan in mind. The state government’s position on it has been precarious, with elections for Batman seat coming up.

While they have said that no taxpayer money should be spent on the project, it has also earlier talked of the economic advantages and jobs it would bring.

Earlier this month, India’s customs department challenged the order that gave a clean chit to the mining giant last year, calling it “erroneous, illegal and improper,” the Indian Express reported on Feb. 11.

The order was given by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in an appellate tribunal. The customs department says that the “…the manner in which the adjudicating authority (DRI) has gone on to describe an otherwise dubious contract process in glowing terms as transparent, independent and good corporate governance practice… only points at eagerness and bias on the part of adjudicating authority to justify overvaluation ignoring facts to the contrary.”

On Aug. 22 last year, the DRI had dropped all charges filed by the agency against Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd and Adani Power Rajasthan Ltd for inflating the total declared value of the goods imported under power and infrastructure heads.